Brookings: Series - Metropolitan Opportunity Series

Brookings: Series - Metropolitan Opportunity Serieshttp://www.brookings.edu/about/programs/metro/metropolitan-opportunity?rssid=Metropolitan+OpportunityBrookings Series FeedenWed, 22 May 2013 13:27:00 -0400http://www.brookings.edu/series.aspx?feed=Metropolitan+OpportunitySat, 25 May 2013 07:14:40 -0400brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunityhttp://feedburner.google.com{6398A106-5907-49B9-8750-EDF051E6E37A}http://webfeeds.brookings.edu/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~3/koXRkL6o_nA/22-suburban-poverty-kneebone-berubeSuburban Poverty Profiles: Montgomery County, Maryland<div> <img src="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/press/books/2013/confrontingsuburbanpoverty/kneeboneberube.jpg?w=120" alt="Kneebone: Confronting Suburban Poverty" border="0" /><br /><p><strong>Editor's Note: </strong><a href="http://www.confrontingsuburbanpoverty.org"><em><strong>Suburban Poverty in America</strong></em></a><strong>, a new book by Elizabeth Kneebone and Alan Berube, explores the growth of suburban poverty and offers unique policy solutions for revitalizing struggling communities. Montgomery County, Maryland is one of the spotlight suburbs, whose plight has also been </strong><a href="http://www.npr.org/2013/05/20/184771918/advocates-struggle-to-reach-growing-ranks-of-suburban-poor" target="_blank"><strong>recognized by NPR</strong></a><strong>. Learn more <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Confronting-Suburban-Poverty-America-Johnson/dp/0815723903/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369170877&sr=8-1&keywords=confronting+suburban+poverty+in+america" target="_blank">about the book</a> and other suburban communities at </strong><a href="http://www.confrontingsuburbanpoverty.org" target="_blank"><strong>confrontingsuburbanpoverty.org</strong></a><strong>.</strong></p> <p>Montgomery County, Maryland— a suburban county adjacent to the nation’s capital— consistently ranks among the country’s wealthiest counties. In 2010, it ranked twelfth in the nation for median household income at more than $89,000. Yet in recent years, this million-person jurisdiction has grown increasingly demographically and economically diverse, changing the scope and scale of need among the county’s residents.</p> <p>The 2000s, in particular, were a period of marked transformation in Montgomery County. Through the middle part of the decade, more jobs and people came to the county and the number of residents living in poverty dropped slightly. However, the disruption of the Great Recession more than erased those gains. No other county in the Washington region, including the District of Columbia, experienced increases in poverty of the same magnitude during the late 2000s.</p> <ul style="margin-right: 0px;" dir="ltr"> <li> <div style="text-align: left;"><strong><em>Data Point: In the three years between 2007 and 2010, Montgomery County shed more than 37,000 jobs, dropping below its 2000 jobs total by 2010.</em></strong></div> </li> </ul> <p>At the same time that the county faced unprecedented economic challenges, it also experienced a rapid demographic transformation. The 2010 census revealed that, for the first time, non-Hispanic whites constituted less than half (49 percent) of the county’s residents, down from 73 percent two decades earlier. And while immigrants accounted for fewer than one in five residents in 1990, in 2010 they represented almost one-third of the population and almost 40 percent of poor residents.</p> <ul dir="ltr"> <li> <div style="margin-right: 0px;"><em><strong>Data Point: Between 2007 and 2010, the number of residents living below the federal poverty line grew by two-thirds, or more than 30,000 people, pushing the poverty rate up by nearly 3 percentage points.</strong></em></div> </li> </ul> <p>Rapid increases in poverty, coupled with the shifting demographics, often left communities in suburban Montgomery County struggling to play catch-up without the resources to match the growing and changing needs of their residents. In response, leaders across the county came together to make sure diverse communities in need do not miss out on critical safety net services because of lack of information or cultural barriers, described further in our local innovation profile of <a href="http://confrontingsuburbanpoverty.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Brookings_ToolKit_CaseStudies_MoCo.pdf">Montgomery County’s Neighborhood Opportunity Network (PDF)</a>.</p><div> <h4> Authors </h4><ul> <li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/experts/berubea?view=bio">Alan Berube</a></li><li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/experts/kneebonee?view=bio">Elizabeth Kneebone</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~4/koXRkL6o_nA" height="1" width="1"/>Wed, 22 May 2013 13:27:00 -0400Alan Berube and Elizabeth Kneebonehttp://www.brookings.edu/blogs/the-avenue/posts/2013/05/22-suburban-poverty-kneebone-berube?rssid=Metropolitan+Opportunity{AA003B7E-1EEC-49AF-8AB2-17C78DCC58CC}http://webfeeds.brookings.edu/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~3/__WvrTWa3P4/multimediaConfronting Suburban Poverty in America - Release Event<div> Event Information:<br/><ul> <li>May 20, 2013, 9:30 AM - 11:30 AM EDT</li> </ul><img src="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/multimedia/interactives/thumbs/sub_pov/sub_pov_16x9.jpg?w=120" alt="" border="0" /><br /> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~4/__WvrTWa3P4" height="1" width="1"/>Mon, 20 May 2013 10:31:00 -0400http://www.brookings.edu/multimedia?mm=Audio%20Files%2f2013%2f05%2f20%20suburban%20poverty&audio=true&rssid=Metropolitan+Opportunity{54703C65-6578-469F-B05F-A26C6D23D9DD}http://webfeeds.brookings.edu/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~3/qrPrdSf1duQ/multimediaKeynote Address - Confronting Suburban Poverty in America<div> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~4/qrPrdSf1duQ" height="1" width="1"/>Mon, 20 May 2013 10:31:00 -0400http://www.brookings.edu/multimedia?mm=Videos%2f2013%2f05%2f20%20suburban%20poverty%20keynote&rssid=Metropolitan+Opportunity{78D6EA48-72AB-4157-9EBB-C4E4F34E2A01}http://webfeeds.brookings.edu/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~3/GagC9-lhaac/multimediaOpening Remarks - Confronting Suburban Poverty in America<div> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~4/GagC9-lhaac" height="1" width="1"/>Mon, 20 May 2013 10:31:00 -0400http://www.brookings.edu/multimedia?mm=Videos%2f2013%2f05%2f20%20suburban%20poverty%20opening&rssid=Metropolitan+Opportunity{BB8CA547-2B3C-4447-ADD9-2A003D28FFD9}http://webfeeds.brookings.edu/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~3/4ygqa7fB1RM/multimediaPanel Discussion - Confronting Suburban Poverty in America<div> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~4/4ygqa7fB1RM" height="1" width="1"/>Mon, 20 May 2013 10:31:00 -0400http://www.brookings.edu/multimedia?mm=Videos%2f2013%2f05%2f20%20suburban%20poverty%20panel&rssid=Metropolitan+Opportunity{4A1EE541-3C10-4158-9035-975F83592C59}http://webfeeds.brookings.edu/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~3/iwzXcqXM6f8/multimediaPresentation - Confronting Suburban Poverty in America<div> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~4/iwzXcqXM6f8" height="1" width="1"/>Mon, 20 May 2013 10:31:00 -0400http://www.brookings.edu/multimedia?mm=Videos%2f2013%2f05%2f20%20suburban%20poverty%20presentation&rssid=Metropolitan+Opportunity{60C51810-6F94-44E8-80E8-E8D3E39FC3CF}http://webfeeds.brookings.edu/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~3/zjlkZaTwFDo/multimediaWelcome Remarks - Confronting Suburban Poverty in America<div> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~4/zjlkZaTwFDo" height="1" width="1"/>Mon, 20 May 2013 10:31:00 -0400http://www.brookings.edu/multimedia?mm=Videos%2f2013%2f05%2f20%20suburban%20poverty%20welcome&rssid=Metropolitan+Opportunity{0FCDF8CB-BD6D-4FDE-A67B-F333F2C20163}http://webfeeds.brookings.edu/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~3/WMYtyxDQd2E/20-suburban-povertyConfronting Suburban Poverty in America - Release Event<div> <img src="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/multimedia/interactives/thumbs/sub_pov/sub_pov_16x9.jpg?w=120" alt="Confronting Suburban Poverty in America" border="0" /><br /><h4> Event Information </h4><div> <p>May 20, 2013<br />9:30 AM - 11:30 AM EDT</p><p>Falk Auditorium<br/>Brookings Institution<br/>1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.<br/>Washington, DC 20036</p> </div><a href="http://www.cvent.com/d/4cqb58/4W">Register for the Event</a><br /><p><a href="http://confrontingsuburbanpoverty.org/" target="_blank">Click here to visit the <em>Confronting Suburban Poverty in America</em> website.</a></p><br/><br/><p>In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a war on poverty.  Back then poverty was largely confined to inner-city neighborhoods and isolated rural areas. Today, the overwhelming majority of America’s poor live not in cities—but in the suburbs of its major metropolitan areas. Yet the paradigm of poverty in America, and the infrastructure for addressing the conditions poor families and communities face, has failed to keep pace with the reality of these changes. The problems of the growing suburban poor are now exacerbated by a weak economy and increasingly limited resources for nonprofits, philanthropies and government at all levels.</p> <p dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/books/2013/confrontingsuburbanpovertyinamerica"><img style="margin-bottom: 10px; float: left; margin-right: 10px;border: 0px solid;" alt="Cover: Confronting Suburban Poverty in America " src="/~/media/Press/Books/2013/confrontingsuburbanpoverty/confrontingsurburban/confrontingsurburban_2x3.jpg" /></a></p> <p style="margin-right: 0px;" dir="ltr">As with many challenges facing the nation, metro area leaders are leading the way in the search for solutions—learning how to do more with less and adjusting their approaches to address the metropolitan scale of poverty, collaborating across sectors and jurisdictions, using data and technology in innovative ways, and integrating services and service delivery.<br /> <br /> </p> <p dir="ltr">In <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/books/2013/confrontingsuburbanpovertyinamerica"><strong><em>Confronting Suburban Poverty in America</em></strong></a> (Brookings, 2013), co-authors <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/experts/kneebonee">Elizabeth Kneebone</a> and <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/experts/berubea">Alan Berube</a>, take on the new reality of metropolitan poverty and opportunity in America. On May 20, they along with some of the nation’s leading anti-poverty experts, including <a href="http://www.fordfoundation.org/about-us/leadership/luis-ubinas" target="_blank">Luis Ubiñas</a>, president of the Ford Foundation, and <a href="http://www.vppartners.org/bio/bill-shore" target="_blank">Bill Shore</a>, founder and CEO of Share our Strength, and leading <a>local innovators from across the country</a> discussed a new metropolitan opportunity agenda for addressing suburban poverty, how federal and state policymakers can deploy limited resources to address a growing challenge, and why building on local solutions holds great promise. </p> <p dir="ltr"><strong><a href="http://confrontingsuburbanpoverty.org/" target="_blank"><strong>Click here to visit the Confronting Suburban Poverty in America website.</strong></a></strong></p><h4> Video </h4><ul> <li><a href="http://brightcove.vo.llnwd.net/pd16/media/102148458001/102148458001_2397046715001_20130520-Metro-Welcome.mp4">Welcome Remarks - Confronting Suburban Poverty in America</a></li><li><a href="http://brightcove.vo.llnwd.net/pd16/media/102148458001/102148458001_2397058405001_20130520-Metro-Opening.mp4">Opening Remarks - Confronting Suburban Poverty in America</a></li><li><a href="http://brightcove.vo.llnwd.net/pd16/media/102148458001/102148458001_2397065848001_20130520-Metro-Presentation.mp4">Presentation - Confronting Suburban Poverty in America</a></li><li><a href="http://brightcove.vo.llnwd.net/pd16/media/102148458001/102148458001_2397088484001_20130520-Metro-Panel.mp4">Panel Discussion - Confronting Suburban Poverty in America</a></li><li><a href="http://brightcove.vo.llnwd.net/pd16/media/102148458001/102148458001_2397065301001_20130520-Metro-Keynote.mp4">Keynote Address - Confronting Suburban Poverty in America</a></li> </ul><h4> Audio </h4><ul> <li><a href="http://brightcove.vo.llnwd.net/pd16/media/102148458001/102148458001_2396868534001_130520-SuburbanPoverty-64k-itunes.mp3">Confronting Suburban Poverty in America - Release Event</a></li> </ul> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~4/WMYtyxDQd2E" height="1" width="1"/>Mon, 20 May 2013 09:30:00 -0400http://www.brookings.edu/events/2013/05/20-suburban-poverty?rssid=Metropolitan+Opportunity{7311187E-1241-4A84-8F91-8C5C62718F9E}http://webfeeds.brookings.edu/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~3/_G3NZMhv1P8/18-job-sprawl-kneeboneJob Sprawl Stalls: The Great Recession and Metropolitan Employment Location<div> <img src="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/images/c/ck%20co/commuter_traffic001/commuter_traffic001_16x9.jpg?w=120" alt="commuter traffic on I-495" border="0" /><br /><style type="text/css"> .multimedia { border: none; background-image: none; display: none; } #container { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; color: #666; letter-spacing: 0.2em; } #map { width: 600px; padding-top: 20px; position: relative; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } #title {font-size: 1.1em; text-transform:uppercase; color: #015376; width: 300px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear:both; text-align: center; } svg { float: left; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both; } .years { margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 70%; } .year {float: left; list-style:none; margin: 0px,20px,0px,20px; padding: 10px; } .year:hover { color:#999; text-decoration:underline; } .year:active {fill:#666; color:red;} circle:hover { fill: orange; cursor: pointer; } #tooltip { position: absolute; width: 200px; height: auto; padding: 10px; background-color: white; -webkit-box-shadow: 4px 4px 10px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3); -moz-box-shadow: 4px 4px 10px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3); box-shadow: 4px 4px 10px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3); pointer-events: none; z-index: 300; } #tooltip.hidden { display: none; } #tooltip p { margin: 0; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; } #artlink {margin-top: 1em; } #metroarea {font-weight:bold; margin-bottom: 10px; } #jobtitle {font-size: .9em; letter-spacing: .13em; } #jobs { font-weight:bold; margin-top: .5em; } #artlink {font-size: .8em; letter-spacing: .13em; color: #c60; } #textbox { width: 100%; position: absolute; top: 320px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; } #select {font-size: .8em; text-transform:uppercase; text-align: center; width: 300px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear:both; } a:link { text-decoration: none; } a:visited { text-decoration: none; } a:hover { text-decoration: none; } a:active { text-decoration: none; } ul {list-style:none; cursor: pointer; } </style> <script src="/~/media/Multimedia/Interactives/2013/AmtrakRoutes/d3v3min.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <p>As policymakers and regional leaders work to grow jobs and connect residents to economic opportunity following the Great Recession, where jobs locate matters. The location of employment within a metro area intersects with a range of policy issues—from transportation to workforce development to regional innovation—that affect a region’s long-term health, prosperity, and social inclusion.</p> <span style = "font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; color: #053769">Job Sprawl in 100 Largest Metropolitan Areas, 2010<br></span> <span style = "font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; color: #333333">Share of jobs 10-35 miles from a central business district<br><i>Click a metro area to view its detailed profile (PDF)</i></span> <div id = "container"> <div id= "map"> <div id="tooltip" class="hidden">  <div id ="metroarea">Metro Area</div> <div id="jobtitle">Share of jobs 10-35 mi from central business district:</div> <div id ="jobs">Jobs</div> <div id=artlink>Click for metro profile (PDF)</div> </div> </div> </div> <p>An analysis of the location of private-sector employment within 35 miles of a downtown in the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas from 2007 to 2010, and across the 2000s, finds:</p> <p><b>Steep employment losses following the Great Recession stalled the steady decentralization of jobs that characterized the early to mid-2000s.</b> After dropping 2 percentage points from 2000 to 2007, the share of metropolitan jobs within 3 miles of downtown stabilized from 2007 to 2010. However, by 2010 nearly twice the share of jobs was located at least 10 miles away from downtown (43 percent) as within 3 miles of downtown (23 percent).</p> <p><b>Job losses in industries hit hardest by the downturn, including construction and manufacturing, helped check employment decentralization in the late 2000s.</b> Together, construction, manufacturing, and retail—each among the most decentralized of major industries—accounted for almost 60 percent of all job losses between 2007 and 2010, with half of those losses occurring at least 10 miles from downtown.</p> <p><b>In all but nine of the 100 largest metro areas, the share of jobs located within three miles of downtown declined during the 2000s.</b> Only Washington, D.C. experienced an increase in both the number and share of jobs located in the urban core during the 2000s. At the same time, the share of jobs at least 10 miles from downtown rose in 85 regions between 2000 and 2010.</p> <p><b>A metro area’s total employment, and policy and planning decisions around land use, economic development, and zoning, help shape the location of its jobs.</b> Employment is more decentralized in metro areas with at least 500,000 jobs. But even large metro areas with high degrees of job decentralization like Chicago and Detroit concentrate many of their jobs in dense locations outside the urban core.</p> <p>In the wake of the Great Recession, policymakers and regional leaders have the opportunity to make strategic decisions about how they will pursue metropolitan growth. If the next period of economic expansion reinforces low-density, diffuse growth in metropolitan America, it will be that much harder for metro areas to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth over the long term. </p> <script type="text/javascript"> //Width and height var w = 600; var h = 350; var url; var jobtext= window.jobtext; //Define map projection var projection = d3.geo.albersUsa() .translate([w/2, (h/2)]) .scale([690]); //Define path generator var path = d3.geo.path() .projection(projection); //Create SVG element var svg = d3.select("#map") .append("svg") .attr("width", w) .attr("height", h); //Load in GeoJSON data d3.json("/~/media/multimedia/interactives/2013/job_sprawl/usstates.json", function(json) { svg.selectAll("path") .data(json.features) .enter() .append("path") .attr("d", path) .style("fill", "#eee") .style("stroke", "#ccc"); //Load in cities data d3.csv("/~/media/multimedia/interactives/2013/job_sprawl/sprawl3.csv", function(data) { var to35 = svg.selectAll("circle.to35") .data(data) .enter() .append("circle") .sort(function(a, b) { return d3.descending(parseFloat(a.share10to352010), parseFloat(b.share10to352010))}) .attr("cx", function(d) { return projection([d.lon, d.lat])[0]; }) .attr("cy", function(d) { return projection([d.lon, d.lat])[1]; }) .attr("r", function(d) { return parseInt(Math.sqrt(parseFloat(d.share10to352010)/Math.PI) * 2.5); }) .attr("id", function(d) { return d.MetroArea}) .style("fill", "#015376") .style("opacity", 0.4) .attr("class", "to35") .text(function (d){return (d.share10to352010 + "%")}) .on("mouseover", function(d) { d3.select(this) .style("fill", "#c60") //Get this bar's x/y values, then augment for the tooltip var xPosition = parseFloat(d3.select(this).attr("cx") )+ 50; var yPosition = parseFloat(d3.select(this).attr("cy") ); var jobtext = String(d3.select(this).text()); //Update the tooltip position and value d3.select("#tooltip") .style("left", xPosition + "px") .style("top", yPosition + "px") .select("#metroarea") .text(d.MetroArea); d3.select("#jobs") .text(function(d) {return jobtext}) //Show the tooltip d3.select("#tooltip").classed("hidden", false); }) .on("click", function(d){ var url2 = d.artlink; //window.location.href = url2; window.open(url2); }) .on("mouseout", function() { d3.select(this) .style("fill", "#015376") //Hide the tooltip d3.select("#tooltip").classed("hidden", true); }); }); }) ; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> if(!document.implementation.hasFeature("http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/feature#BasicStructure", "1.1")){ document.getElementById("container").innerHTML = '<p style="text-align:center;padding-top:10px;line-height:18px;">This interactive map requires a modern browser such as Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer 9.<br/>To view PDF profiles for the top 100 metropolitan areas, <a style="color:#0A96B1;" href="/research/reports/2013/04/19-job-sprawl-kneebone-williams/profiles">go to the profile download page »</a></p>'; } </script><h4> Downloads </h4><ul> <li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/reports/2013/04/18-job-sprawl-kneebone/srvy_jobsprawl.pdf">Download the report</a></li> </ul><div> <h4> Authors </h4><ul> <li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/experts/kneebonee?view=bio">Elizabeth Kneebone</a></li> </ul> </div><div> Image Source: © Gary Cameron / Reuters </div> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~4/_G3NZMhv1P8" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 18 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0400Elizabeth Kneebonehttp://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2013/04/18-job-sprawl-kneebone?rssid=Metropolitan+Opportunity{95AAD21D-EC8D-4B51-B6CA-F6E74A83FE30}http://webfeeds.brookings.edu/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~3/t1MHiP3F1zs/11-eitc-anti-poverty-kneebone-williamsNew State Data Show EITC’s Widespread Anti-Poverty Impact<div> <img src="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/images/c/cf%20cj/child_lunch001/child_lunch001_16x9.jpg?w=120" alt="Vida Torres, 2, eats lunch at her family's home in Santa Ana, California (REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson)." border="0" /><br />Packed into the new year’s fiscal cliff deal was <a href="http://www.taxcreditsforworkingfamilies.org/2013/01/fiscal-cliff-working-family-tax-credits/">some good news for working families</a>. Most notable was a provision that extends the 2009 Recovery Act expansions to the <a href="http://www.irs.gov/uac/ARRA-and-the-Earned-Income-Tax-Credit">Earned Income Tax Credit</a> (EITC) and <a href="http://www.irs.gov/uac/ARRA-and-the-Additional-Child-Tax-Credit">Child Tax Credit</a> (CTC) by five years—<a href="http://carseyinstitute.unh.edu/sites/carseyinstitute.unh.edu/files/publications/IB-Mattingly-EITC-2012-print.pdf">targeted expansions that strengthened</a> these credits for working families in response to the Great Recession and weak economic recovery that followed. <p>These tax credits, in addition to encouraging work, also do a great deal to reduce poverty. We know this thanks to the Census Bureau’s new <a href="http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p60-244.pdf">Supplemental Poverty Measure</a> (SPM), which provides a <a href="http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-avenue/74966/toward-accurate-portrayal-american-poverty">more nuanced measure</a> of poverty across the country, accounting for things the official poverty measure does not—like after-tax income, regional differences in housing costs, and the impact of government policies like the EITC and CTC. Based on the SPM, the EITC and refundable portion of the CTC (including the 2009 expansions) together lowered the poverty rate by 2.8 percentage points in 2011. The impact on child poverty was even greater: under the SPM definition the credits lowered the child poverty rate by fully 6.3 percentage points. </p> <p>Until recently, estimates of how particular anti-poverty programs affected the SPM were only available at the national level. Thanks to<a href="http://www.census.gov/hhes/povmeas/data/supplemental/public-use.html"> public-use files</a> recently released by the Census Bureau, we can now estimate the extent to which the EITC and CTC have alleviated poverty in individual states throughout the country. </p> <p>The map below illustrates the average number of people kept out of poverty by the combined impact of the federal EITC and CTC using the most recent data available. (Due to sample size issues, the map presents an average of three years of Current Population Survey data, from 2009 to 2011.) The EITC and CTC boosted working families’ earnings above poverty in every state; large states like Texas and California saw more than 1 million people lifted out of poverty, while at the other end of the spectrum, these credits kept over 9,000 residents of North Dakota from falling below the poverty line.</p> <p style="text-align: left;"><img alt="" width="621" height="480" src="/~/media/Research/Files/Blogs/2013/01/11 eitc anti poverty kneebone williams/11 eitc anti poverty kneebone williams.jpg" /> </p> <p>Though currently the SPM only measures the effects of the federal tax code, many states also have <a href="http://www.taxcreditsforworkingfamilies.org/earned-income-tax-credit/states-with-eitcs/">local versions</a> of the EITC that further strengthen the anti-poverty impact of the federal credit. And a number of these states and others are poised to make important decisions about state-level EITCs in the next legislative session. In North Carolina and Oregon, legislators will vote whether to extend their state EITCs, set to expire this year, while Utah legislators will decide whether to establish a state EITC for the first time. While Oklahoma and Kansas are likely to see proposals for a reduction in the size and impact of their state EITCs, Oregon and New Mexico could potentially expand their credits.  </p> <p>As the new SPM data document reveals, tens of thousands of individuals in each of these states are kept out of poverty each year by the federal EITC, about half of whom are children. (See <a href="http://www.taxcreditsforworkingfamilies.org/working-families-poverty-eitc-ctc-state/">this table</a> for detailed data.) As working families continue to struggle with the aftereffects of the worst recession since the Great Depression, these states have the opportunity to make sure their tax codes are working for those families by enacting, preserving, or expanding state credits that boost the impact of the federal EITC.</p><div> <h4> Authors </h4><ul> <li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/experts/kneebonee?view=bio">Elizabeth Kneebone</a></li><li>Jane Williams</li> </ul> </div><div> Publication: The Avenue, The New Republic </div><div> Image Source: © Lucy Nicholson / Reuters </div> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~4/t1MHiP3F1zs" height="1" width="1"/>Fri, 11 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0500Elizabeth Kneebone and Jane Williamshttp://www.brookings.edu/blogs/the-avenue/posts/2013/01/11-eitc-anti-poverty-kneebone-williams?rssid=Metropolitan+Opportunity{03C48A93-4D54-45FC-AA03-559D3AE79492}http://webfeeds.brookings.edu/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~3/gKuInfqk3tw/19-eitc-taxes-kneeboneA New Look at How the Tax Code Works for Working Families<div> <img src="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/blogs/2012/11/19%20eitc%20taxes%20kneebone/19%20eitc%20map.jpg?w=120" alt="Share of Filers Claiming EITC by State, Tax Year 2010" border="0" /><br /><p class="article_detail_body"> </p> <p>As the clock ticks down to January 1, and lawmakers try to hash out a deal to avoid the <a href="http://blogs.ajc.com/jamie-dupree-washington-insider/2012/11/19/six-weeks-to-go-on-the-fiscal-cliff/">fiscal cliff</a> and address the expiration of the <a href="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/background/bush-tax-cuts/index.cfm">Bush tax cuts</a>, new data on taxpayers in the United States--collected from federal tax returns and available down to the ZIP code level through Brookings’ <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/interactives/eitc">EITC Interactive</a>--provide an important perspective on the impact of the tax code on families and communities across the country.</p> <p>For instance, the latest EITC Interactive data--which represent tax returns filed in <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/%7E/media/Programs/metro/EITC/interactive%20data%20brief.pdf">January through June</a> of 2011--show that key provisions in the tax code proved responsive to the Great Recession, helping working families to weather the downturn.</p> <p>Roughly one in five tax filers claimed the <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/about/programs/metro/eitc/eitc-homepage">Earned Income Tax Credit</a> (EITC) in TY2010--a tax break for workers with low incomes--compared to 16 percent of filers in TY2007. In part the increase in EITC receipt reflects rising unemployment and falling incomes that may have led more workers to become eligible for the credit, but it also reflects targeted expansions to the credit made through the <a href="http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-avenue/changes-eitc-proposed-budget">American Recovery and Reinvestment Act</a> (ARRA) to help strengthen the safety net and stimulate local economies.</p> <p> <ul> <li>In TY2010, nine states saw anywhere from one quarter to one third of their taxpayers claim the EITC, led by Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, and Arkansas. And 10 states experienced an uptick in the rate of EITC receipt of 5 percentage points or more over the course of the recession, led by Mississippi, Georgia, Arizona, Idaho, and Tennessee. No state experienced a decrease in EITC receipt during the downturn. </li> <li>More than half (60 percent) of EITC filers also benefitted from the refundable portion of the <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=2989">Child Tax Credit</a> (ACTC) in TY2010--a tax benefit for low- and moderate-income working families with children that was also expanded temporarily through ARRA—compared to 45 percent in TY2007. </li> <li>All together, EITC filers claimed an average credit of $2,247 in TY2010, and for those EITC filers who who received it, the ACTC boosted the average refund by $1,234. </li> </ul> </p> <p><strong>See the map: <a href="/~/media/Research/Files/Blogs/2012/11/19 eitc taxes kneebone/19 eitc map.jpg">Share of Filers Claiming EITC by State, Tax Year 2010</a> </strong></p> <p>The release of the Census Bureau’s <a href="http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p60-244.pdf">Supplemental Poverty Measure</a> (SPM) last week underscores the importance of these tax credits for low-income working families. If it weren’t for the EITC and ACTC, the Census Bureau estimates that the U.S. poverty rate in 2011 would have been 2.8 percentage points higher, at 18.9 percent. The impact on child poverty would have been even greater: without these credits the child poverty rate would have reached 24.4 percent rather than 18.1 percent under the SPM definition.</p> <p>Though the SPM is not available for smaller, sub-state geographies, through Brookings’ EITC Interactive policymakers and other stakeholders can find estimates of the number of filers benefitting from these credits--and the dollar amounts claimed--for every congressional and state legislative district in the country, and for every ZIP code, municipality, county, metro area, and state.</p> <p>Contrary to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/11/15/from-the-47-to-gifts-mitt-romneys-ugly-vision-of-politics/">Mitt Romney’s narrative</a> about the 47 percent “takers” and giveaways to the Democratic base, these data show that the impact of these credits is far-reaching and broadly shared (as the list of “red” states above suggests)--crossing party and <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2011/02/17-eitc-poverty-kneebone">geographic</a> lines to reach struggling working families at tax time. And that phrase bears repeating: These are taxpayers who are <em>working.</em></p> <p>Part of welfare reform in the late 1990s was an explicit decision to do less via traditional cash assistance and do more through the tax code to encourage work. Years’ worth of <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3793">research illustrates the success</a> of the EITC as a policy to promote work and better economic outcomes for low-income families. Updated profiles of the <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/about/programs/metro/eitc/eitc-profiles">EITC-eligible population</a> in TY2010 give greater insight into who these taxpayers are. More than three-quarters of these taxpayers live in family units; more than 54 percent are white; and almost half (46 percent) have some higher education. The typical EITC-eligible taxpayer has an adjusted gross income of just $13,905, and is most likely to have earned that income working in the retail, health care, accommodation and food service, construction, and manufacturing industries. These are workers filling the increasing number of low-wage service sector jobs the economy has been churning out in recent years, and in industries that bore the brunt of the latest downturn.</p> <p>Discussions over the fiscal cliff and longer-term tax reform will inevitably include calls for more taxpayers to have “skin in the game.” But that’s not only a distraction from the real issues, it’s a distortion of reality. We made a choice in the 1980s and the 1990s to support work and alleviate poverty through the federal income tax. And all the evidence--federal, state, and local--shows that it’s working, for a broad base of Americans. Taxing hard-working families deeper into poverty is no fix for our short- or long-run budget problems.</p><div> <h4> Authors </h4><ul> <li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/experts/kneebonee?view=bio">Elizabeth Kneebone</a></li> </ul> </div><div> Publication: The Avenue, The New Republic </div> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~4/gKuInfqk3tw" height="1" width="1"/>Mon, 19 Nov 2012 16:00:00 -0500Elizabeth Kneebonehttp://www.brookings.edu/blogs/the-avenue/posts/2012/11/19-eitc-taxes-kneebone?rssid=Metropolitan+Opportunity{F658A784-3DE5-4FBB-9709-57DD8286FCAB}http://webfeeds.brookings.edu/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~3/z6JpTffTCNk/dc-transit-job-accessConnecting to Opportunity: Access to Jobs via Transit in the Washington, D.C. Region<div> <img src="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/images/m/ma%20me/metro_train001/metro_train001_16x9.jpg?w=120" alt="Interior of a Yellow Line train on Washington Metro, crossing the Potomac River between the Pentagon and L'Enfant Plaza stations on a Sunday afternoon (AudeVivere, Creative Commons)." border="0" /><br />Metropolitan transportation networks are critical for a region's economic competitiveness. Public transit is a key component of the economic and social fabric of metropolitan areas. While commuting to work is only one reason residents may use a transit system, it is a dominant use: Commutes make up the largest share of transit trips nationwide. <p>Improving transportation connections to employment enhances the efficiency of labor markets for both workers and employers. Years of study, research and practice have tried to address the vexing logistical problems stemming from lack of access to transportation in major metropolitan areas. Today, transportation analysts increasingly consider accessibility to be a better measure of system performance than traditional mobility. It is at least as important for metropolitan residents to be able to access a range of activities, such as jobs, via the transportation system, as it is for systems to simply move vehicles faster and reduce travel times.</p> <p><noindex> <blockquote class="pull-quote"> <p>The effectiveness of transit depends upon its reach, frequency, and where it goes.</p> </blockquote> </noindex></p> <p>An analysis of the public transit systems serving the Washington, D.C. region finds that:</p> <ul> <li> Nearly 90 percent of residents in the Washington, D.C. region live in neighborhoods with access to transit coverage of some kind, whether bus, Metrorail, or commuter rail.</li> <li>Due to broad transit coverage and proximity to job centers, job access via transit is strongest in the District, Arlington, and Alexandria, with access rates dropping based on distance from the core.</li> <li>Transit does a better job providing high-skill residents access to high-skill jobs that it does mid-skill residents to mid skill jobs and low-skill residents to low-skill jobs.</li> <li>In many cases, housing costs are out of reach for low- and mid-skill workers in areas identified in this report as offering strong transit access to employment. </li> </ul> <p> </p> <p><a href="%7E/media/D3589634EEC94C09B895AB17D126DC1F.ashx">Download » (PDF)</a></p><h4> Downloads </h4><ul> <li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/11/dc-transit-job-access/dc-transit-job-access-ross.pdf">Download the paper</a></li> </ul><div> <h4> Authors </h4><ul> <li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/experts/rossm?view=bio">Martha Ross</a></li><li>Nicole Prchal Svajlenka</li> </ul> </div> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~4/z6JpTffTCNk" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 08 Nov 2012 13:00:00 -0500Martha Ross and Nicole Prchal Svajlenkahttp://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2012/11/dc-transit-job-access?rssid=Metropolitan+Opportunity{AEAD4426-507C-4157-A27A-4ABFF1A24346}http://webfeeds.brookings.edu/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~3/RILPOfHbG-Q/20-poverty-geography-kneeboneThe Changing Geography of Metropolitan Poverty<div> <img src="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/images/j/jk%20jo/jobless_workers/jobless_workers_16x9.jpg?w=120" alt="Men look for work while standing along street corners in Brooklyn, New York (REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz)." border="0" /><br /><p><em>Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on <a href="http://www.theatlanticcities.com/politics/2012/09/changing-geography-metropolitan-poverty/3348/">The Atlantic Cities</a> website on September 20, 2012.</em> </p> <p>The Great Recession may have officially ended in June 2009, but the weak and sluggish recovery has left many Americans struggling with the effects of a down economy years later, as evidenced by today’s release of <a href="http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/american_community_survey_acs/cb12-175.html">2011 American Community Survey</a> data on poverty and income. The local level data reveal an uneven recovery that had not gained enough traction in 2011 to turn the corner on these trends.</p> <p><img width="600" height="457" alt="" src="/~/media/Research/Files/Articles/2012/9/20 poverty geography kneebone/20 poverty geography kneebone photo.JPG" /><br> </p> <p>Even as the economy achieved a net job growth of 1.9 million private-sector jobs in 2011, the upward pressure on poverty in the nation’s largest metro areas continued. After jumping from 11.6 to 14.4 percent in the span of a decade, the poverty rate for the country’s 100 most populous metro areas climbed further still between 2010 and 2011, to reach 15.1 percent.</p> <p><a href="http://www.theatlanticcities.com/politics/2012/09/changing-geography-metropolitan-poverty/3348/">Read the full article at theatlanticcities.com »</a></p><div> <h4> Authors </h4><ul> <li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/experts/kneebonee?view=bio">Elizabeth Kneebone</a></li> </ul> </div><div> Publication: The Atlantic Cities </div><div> Image Source: © Eduardo Munoz / Reuters </div> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~4/RILPOfHbG-Q" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:15:00 -0400Elizabeth Kneebonehttp://www.brookings.edu/research/articles/2012/09/20-poverty-geography-kneebone?rssid=Metropolitan+Opportunity{7051FFD3-D816-4080-A632-21795A73F880}http://webfeeds.brookings.edu/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~3/zCw2jpsATCE/13-change-in-poverty-rate-kneeboneU.S. Poverty Continues its Post-Recession Grip<div> <img src="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/images/p/pk%20po/poverty003/poverty003_16x9.jpg?w=120" alt="Timothy, Zack and Casey Spyder are seen in Slab City just outside Niland, California (REUTERS/ERIC THAYER)." border="0" /><br /><p>Yesterday, the Census Bureau released the latest round of <a href="http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/income_wealth/cb12-172.html">Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage</a> data, giving us a look at 2011. The mixed picture that emerged in yesterday’s release reveals the effects of an economic recovery that has remained sluggish and weak since its official start in <a href="http://www.nber.org/cycles/sept2010.html">June 2009</a>.</p> <p><noindex> <div class="article-promo"> <p class="label">Image</p> <p class="title"> <a id="embed_5e9cc32d-8661-4ada-b43e-eed38286dd26_hlTitle" alt="Change in Poverty Rate: 2008-2009 to 2010-2011" href="/~/media/research/files/blogs/2012/9/change%20in%20poverty%20rate%20kneebone/change%20in%20poverty%20rate%20map.jpg">Change in Poverty Rate: 2008-2009 to 2010-2011</a> </p> <a id="embed_5e9cc32d-8661-4ada-b43e-eed38286dd26_hlImage" class="thumb" href="/~/media/research/files/blogs/2012/9/change%20in%20poverty%20rate%20kneebone/change%20in%20poverty%20rate%20map.jpg"><img id="embed_5e9cc32d-8661-4ada-b43e-eed38286dd26_imgImage" src="/~/media/research/files/blogs/2012/9/change%20in%20poverty%20rate%20kneebone/change%20in%20poverty%20rate%20map.jpg?w=190" alt="Change in Poverty Rate: 2008-2009 to 2010-2011" /></a> </div> </noindex></p> <p>There was good news. More people were working full-time, year-round jobs in 2011 compared to 2010 (1.7 million), and the number of residents without health insurance dropped by the largest margin since 1999 (1.3 million). But there was also bad news. Even amid net job growth and more full-time employment, the typical household’s income continued to fall, dropping by 1.5 percent to $50,054. And for the first time since 1993, income inequality grew significantly (1.6 percent), reflecting the uneven nature of a recovery that saw incomes at the top expand while the middle lost ground and the bottom earners stagnated.</p> <p>Yet, <a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/us-poverty-track-rise-highest-1960s">contrary to the expectations</a> of many economists, poverty did not change in 2011. The number of poor held steady at its historic high of 46.2 million. Likewise, the share of the population living below the poverty line ($23,021 for a family of four) remained statistically unchanged compared to 2010, at 15 percent.</p> <p>These data only reveal so much, given that they lack the local-level detail to tell us how different places across the country experienced these trends. Just as the <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/interactives/july-metromonitor#overall">economic health and performance</a> of individual metro varies widely, so, too, does the trajectory of <a href="http://www.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2011/09/rapid-growth-suburban-poor/190/">poverty trends</a> across and within metropolitan America. For that detail, we will have to wait for the release of the 2011 American Community Survey next week. In the meantime, though, findings from yesterday’s report suggest important factors to look out for.</p> <ul> <li>The South saw poverty drop slightly between 2010 and 2011. It was the only region in the United States to experience a significant change in that year, but state-by-state trends suggest a number of places continued to struggle with increasing poverty (see <a href="http://%20http://www.tnr.com/sites/default/files/blog_map_cps.pdf">map</a>). Between 2008-2009 and 2010-2011, 19 states experienced a significant uptick in their poverty rate, led by Louisiana, Nevada, and South Carolina.</li> <li>Poverty remained unchanged in metro areas and principal cities, but fell for residents living in “suburbs.” The decline in suburban areas came as more residents reported working full-time, year-round jobs. (Note that the Census Bureau uses a more expansive definition of principal cities than <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/about/programs/metro/metropolitan-opportunity">our research</a>, and encompasses the full pool of 366 metro areas, rather than the 100 largest. Next week we will use the new ACS data to dig more deeply into how intra-metropolitan poverty trends in the nation’s largest metro areas may have changed in 2011.)</li> <li> The safety net continued to play an important role in alleviating poverty. Key programs like Unemployment Insurance (UI), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) provided critical supports to low-income families in 2011. Without UI, 2.3 million more people would have fallen below the poverty line. Counting SNAP toward income lifts 3.9 million people out of poverty, and EITC brings 5.7 million people above the poverty line.</li> </ul> <p>Next week we will know more about poverty and income in 2011. But yesterday’s report brings home a difficult reality. The weak recovery has failed to make progress against poverty, and looming cuts to key safety net programs mean programs and policies that have served as effective bulwarks against poverty will likely erode. Let’s not forget the good news in yesterday’s numbers, but signs point to a difficult road ahead.</p><div> <h4> Authors </h4><ul> <li>Elizabeth Kneebone</li> </ul> </div><div> Publication: The Avenue, The New Republic </div><div> Image Source: © ERIC THAYER / Reuters </div> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~4/zCw2jpsATCE" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 13 Sep 2012 17:00:00 -0400Elizabeth Kneebonehttp://www.brookings.edu/blogs/the-avenue/posts/2012/09/13-change-in-poverty-rate-kneebone?rssid=Metropolitan+Opportunity{FE4937E7-7EF7-4F16-8E47-314305FE8589}http://webfeeds.brookings.edu/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~3/vvoGGbjJ_h0/11-transit-jobs-tomerWhere the Jobs Are: Employer Access to Labor by Transit<div> <img src="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/images/s/su%20sz/subway003/subway003_16x9.jpg?w=120" alt="Giuseppe Castellano uses his AT&T iPhone in the subway at West 14th Street and 8th Avenue in New York September 27, 2011. (Reuters/Shannon Stapleton)" border="0" /><br /><p><noindex> <div class="multimedia"> <style type="text/css"> canvas:focus { outline: 0; } </style> <script type="text/javascript" src="/~/media/multimedia/interactives/2012/wheeler_timeseries/js/processing135min.js"></script> <canvas data-processing-sources="/~/media/Multimedia/Interactives/2012/transitaccess/transitmap.pde /~/media/multimedia/interactives/2012/school_access/FloatTable.pde /~/media/Multimedia/Interactives/2012/transitaccess/Integrator.pde /~/media/Multimedia/Interactives/2012/transitaccess/Table.pde"> <div id="transitmap_container">  <object classid="clsid:8AD9C840-044E-11D1-B3E9-00805F499D93" codebase="http://java.sun.com/update/1.6.0/jinstall-6u20-windows-i586.cab" width="600" height="475" standby="Loading Processing software..." > <param name="code" value="transitmap" /> <param name="archive" value="/~/media/Multimedia/Interactives/2012/transitaccess/jar/transitmap.jar" /> <param name="mayscript" value="true" /> <param name="scriptable" value="true" /> <param name="image" value="/~/media/multimedia/interactives/2012/wheeler_timeseries/image/loading.gif" /> <param name="boxmessage" value="Loading Processing software..." /> <param name="boxbgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <p> <strong> To view this content, please download the latest version of <a href="www.google.com/chrome">Chrome</a>, <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/">Firefox</a>, <a href="http://www.apple.com/safari/">Safari</a>, or <a href="www.microsoft.com/IE9">Internet Explorer</a>; or download the <a href="http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp">Java browser plugin.</a> </strong> </p> </object> </div> </canvas><p class="caption"></p> </div> </noindex></p> <p><noindex> <blockquote class="pull-quote"> <p> The suburbanization of jobs obstructs transit’s ability to connect workers to opportunity and jobs to local labor pools.</p> </blockquote> </noindex></p> <p>An analysis of data from 371 transit providers in the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas reveals that: </p> <p><strong>Over three-quarters of all jobs in the 100 largest metropolitan areas are in neighborhoods with transit service.</strong> Western metro areas like Los Angeles and Seattle exhibit the highest coverage rates, while rates are lowest in Southern metro areas like Atlanta and Greenville. Regardless of region, city jobs across every metro area and industry category have better access to transit than their suburban counterparts. </p> <p><strong>The typical job is accessible to only about 27 percent of its metropolitan workforce by transit in 90 minutes or less.</strong> Labor access varies considerably from a high of 64 percent in metropolitan Salt Lake City to a low of 6 percent in metropolitan Palm Bay, refl ecting differences in both transit provision, job concentration, and land use patterns. City jobs are consistently accessible to larger shares of metropolitan labor pools than suburban jobs, reinforcing cities' geographic advantage relative to transit routing. </p> <p><strong>The suburbanization of jobs obstructs transit’s ability to connect workers to opportunity and jobs to local labor pools.</strong> Fortunately, some metro areas exhibit near ubiquitous transit coverage rates and enable their jobs to access over half of their local labor pools, proving that expanded transit networks and integrated land use decisions can improve transit's utility to employers. As metro leaders continue to grapple with limited financial resources, it is critical for transit investment decisions to simultaneously address suburban coverage gaps as well as disconnected neighborhoods. Those decisions should be made in concert with actors from other public agencies and the private sector.</p> <p><a href="/~/media/Research/Files/Papers/2012/7/transit labor tomer/11 transit labor tomer full paper.pdf"><strong>Read more »</strong></a></p> <p><strong><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2012/07/11-transit-jobs-tomer/profiles">Go to the profiles page for detailed statistics on your metropolitan area »</a></strong></p><h4> Downloads </h4><ul> <li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/7/transit-labor-tomer/11-transit-labor-tomer-full-paper">Full paper</a></li><li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/7/transit-labor-tomer/transit-labor-tomer-appendixa">Appendix A</a></li><li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/7/transit-labor-tomer/transit-labor-tomer-appendixb">Appendix B</a></li><li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/7/transit-labor-tomer/transit-labor-tomer-appendixc">Appendix C</a></li> </ul><div> <h4> Authors </h4><ul> <li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/about/programs/metro/staff/tomera">Adie Tomer</a></li> </ul> </div><div> Image Source: Shannon Stapleton / Reuters </div> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~4/vvoGGbjJ_h0" height="1" width="1"/>Wed, 11 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0400Adie Tomerhttp://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2012/07/11-transit-jobs-tomer?rssid=Metropolitan+Opportunity{B409C2F2-62BE-406A-A170-B21073D4F9A8}http://webfeeds.brookings.edu/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~3/Lq8zFfSex1w/03-poverty-kneebone-nadeau-berubeThe Re-Emergence of Concentrated Poverty: Metropolitan Trends in the 2000s<div> <img src="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/images/s/sk%20so/soupkitchen001_16x9.jpg?w=120" alt="People eat at the Part of the Solution (POTS) soup kitchen and food pantry in the Bronx borough of New York" border="0" /><br /><p>As the first decade of the 2000s drew to a close, the two downturns that bookended the period, combined with slow job growth between, clearly took their toll on the nation’s less fortunate residents.<br /> <br /> Over a ten-year span, the country saw the poor population grow by 12.3 million, driving the total number of Americans in poverty to a historic high of 46.2 million. By the end of the decade, over 15 percent of the nation’s population lived below the federal poverty line—$22,314 for a family of four in 2010—though these increases did not occur evenly throughout the country.<br /> <br /> </p> <div><em> <div><em><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2011/11/03-poverty-kneebone-nadeau-berube/profiles"><em>Find concentrated poverty statistics for your metropolitan area »</em></a></em></div> </em></div> <p>An analysis of data on neighborhood poverty from the 2005–09 American Community Surveys and Census 2000 reveals that:<br /> <br /> </p> <p><strong>After declining in the 1990s, the population in extreme-poverty neighborhoods—where at least 40 percent of individuals live below the poverty line—rose by one-third from 2000 to 2005–09.</strong> By the end of the period, 10.5 percent of poor people nationwide lived in such neighborhoods, up from 9.1 percent in 2000, but still well below the 14.1 percent rate in 1990.</p> <p><noindex> <div class="multimedia"> <br /> <div id="fcontent2"><b>To view an interactive version of this map, please download <a href="http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer">Adobe Flash Player version 9.0</a> and a browser with javascript enabled.</b><br><br><img src="/~/media/Multimedia/Interactives/2011/epjpg.jpg"></div> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/swfobject/2.2/swfobject.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> swfobject.switchOffAutoHideShow(); var flashvars2= {xmlPath:"/~/media/Multimedia/Interactives/2011/epdata.csv"}; swfobject.embedSWF('/~/media/Multimedia/Interactives/2011/ep.swf', 'fcontent2', "600", "510", "9.0.0", false, flashvars2); </script> <br /><br /><p class="caption">People Living in Extreme Poverty Tracts 2005 2009</p> </div> </noindex></p> <p><strong>Concentrated poverty nearly doubled in Midwestern metro areas from 2000 to 2005–09, and rose by one-third in Southern metro areas.</strong> The Great Lakes metro areas of Toledo, Youngstown, Detroit, and Dayton ranked among those experiencing the largest increases in concentrated poverty rates, while the South was home to metro areas posting both some of the largest increases (El Paso, Baton Rouge, and Jackson) and decreases (McAllen, Virginia Beach, and Charleston). At the same time, concentrated poverty declined in Western metro areas, a trend which may have reversed in the wake of the late 2000s housing crisis.</p> <p><noindex> <div class="multimedia"> <br /> <div id="fcontent1"><b>To view an interactive version of this map, please download <a href="http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer">Adobe Flash Player version 9.0</a> and a browser with javascript enabled.</b><br><br><img src="/~/media/Multimedia/Interactives/2011/povertyjpg.jpg"></div> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/swfobject/2.2/swfobject.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> swfobject.switchOffAutoHideShow(); var flashvars1= {xmlPath:"/~/media/Multimedia/Interactives/2011/povertydata.csv"}; swfobject.embedSWF('/~/media/Multimedia/Interactives/2011/poverty.swf', 'fcontent1', "600", "510", "9.0.0", false, flashvars1); </script> <br /><br /><p class="caption">Concentrated Poverty in the Nation's Top 100 Metro Areas</p> </div> </noindex></p> <p><strong>The population in extreme-poverty neighborhoods rose more than twice as fast in suburbs as in cities from 2000 to 2005–09.</strong> The same is true of poor residents in extreme-poverty tracts, who increased by 41 percent in suburbs, compared to 17 percent in cities. However, poor people in cities remain more than four times as likely to live in concentrated poverty as their suburban counterparts.</p> <p><strong>The shift of concentrated poverty to the Midwest and South in the 2000s altered the average demographic profile of extreme-poverty neighborhoods.</strong> Compared to 2000, residents of extreme-poverty neighborhoods in 2005–09 were more likely to be white, native-born, high school or college graduates, homeowners, and not receiving public assistance. However, black residents continued to comprise the largest share of the population in these neighborhoods (45 percent), and over two-thirds of residents had a high school diploma or less.</p> <p><strong>The recession-induced rise in poverty in the late 2000s likely further increased the concentration of poor individuals into neighborhoods of extreme poverty.</strong> While the concentrated poverty rate in large metro areas grew by half a percentage point between 2000 and 2005–09, estimates suggest the concentrated poverty rate rose by 3.5 percentage points in 2010 alone, to reach 15.1 percent. Some of the steepest estimated increases compared to 2005–09 occurred in Sun Belt metro areas like Cape Coral, Fresno, Modesto, and Palm Bay, and in Midwestern places like Indianapolis, Grand Rapids, and Akron.</p> <p>These trends suggest the strong economy of the late 1990s did not permanently resolve the challenge of concentrated poverty. The slower economic growth of the 2000s, followed by the worst downturn in decades, led to increases in neighborhoods of extreme poverty once again throughout the nation, particularly in suburban and small metropolitan communities and in the Midwest. Policies that foster balanced and sustainable economic growth at the regional level, and that forge connections between growing clusters of low-income neighborhoods and regional economic opportunity, will be key to longer-term progress against concentrated disadvantage.</p><h4> Downloads </h4><ul> <li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2011/11/03-poverty-kneebone-nadeau-berube/1103_poverty_kneebone_nadeau_berube">Download the Full Paper</a></li> </ul><h4> Video </h4><ul> <li><a href="http://brightcove.vo.llnwd.net/e1/uds/pd/102148458001/102148458001_1255142420001_20110102-berube.mp4">Concentrated Poverty Grips Communities</a></li> </ul><div> <h4> Authors </h4><ul> <li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/experts/kneebonee?view=bio">Elizabeth Kneebone</a></li><li>Carey Nadeau</li><li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/experts/berubea?view=bio">Alan Berube</a></li> </ul> </div><div> Image Source: Shannon Stapleton </div> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~4/Lq8zFfSex1w" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 03 Nov 2011 09:57:00 -0400Elizabeth Kneebone, Carey Nadeau and Alan Berubehttp://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2011/11/03-poverty-kneebone-nadeau-berube?rssid=Metropolitan+Opportunity{996017F2-5F8B-4982-ACC6-D94A06579828}http://webfeeds.brookings.edu/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~3/8-UcelPcA1w/11-housing-suburbs-covington-freeman-stollThe Suburbanization of Housing Choice Voucher Recipients<div> <p>Just as the suburbanization of poverty has gathered momentum, Americans who use housing choice vouchers (HCV) to help pay for their housing have increasingly moved into suburban areas as well. <br> <br> Where HCV recipients can locate in suburban areas is critically important to their job prospects. During the 1990s, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development implemented several policy changes aimed at giving HCV recipients more choices, but little is know about whether this is increasing the variety of housing opportunities for recipients in the suburbs, or whether suburban vouchers recipients are locating in higher-income, jobs-rich areas. <br></p><p><p>Where HCV recipients can locate in suburban areas is critically important to their job prospects.  During the 1990s, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development implemented several policy changes aimed at giving HCV recipients more choices, but we do not know a great deal about whether this is increasing the variety of housing opportunities for recipients when they move to the suburbs, particularly housing opportunities that connect well with employment opportunities.  </p> <p>This study analyzes the changing location of HCV recipients within the nation’s largest metro areas in the 2000s and finds:</p> <ul> <li><b>Nearly half of all HCV recipients lived in suburban areas in 2008.</b> However, HCV recipients remained less suburbanized than the total population, the poor population, and affordable housing units generally.</li> </ul> <ul> <li><b>Black HCV recipients suburbanized fastest over the 2000 to 2008 period, though white HCV recipients were still more suburbanized than their black or Latino counterparts by 2008.  </b>Black HCV recipients' suburbanization rate increased by nearly 5 percent over this period, while that for Latinos increased by about 1 percent.  The suburbanization rate for white HCV recipients declined slightly.  </li> </ul> <ul> <li><b>Within metro areas, HCV recipients moved further toward higher-income, jobs-rich suburbs between 2000 and 2008.</b>  However, the poor and affordable housing units shifted more rapidly toward similar kinds of suburbs over that period.  By 2008 about half of suburban HCV recipients still lived in low-income suburbs.</li> </ul> <ul> <li><b>Between 2000 and 2008, metro areas in the West and those experiencing large increases in suburban poverty exhibited the biggest shifts in HCV recipients to the suburbs.  </b>Western metro areas like Stockton, Boise, and Phoenix experienced increases of 10 percentage points or more in the suburbanization rate of HCV recipients.</li> </ul> These findings lead to recommendations that we provide greater incentives for multi-family housing, that we re-evaluate local zoning regulations, improve enforcement of fair housing laws, and facilitate the use of housing vouchers in higher-income suburban neighborhoods.</p><h4> Downloads </h4><ul> <li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2011/10/11-housing-suburbs-covington-freeman-stoll/1011_housing_suburbs_covington_freeman_stoll">Download the Full Paper</a></li><li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2011/10/11-housing-suburbs-covington-freeman-stoll/1011_housing_suburbs_rankings">Download the Ranking Table</a></li> </ul><div> <h4> Authors </h4><ul> <li>Kenya Covington</li><li>Lance Freeman</li><li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/experts/stollm?view=bio">Michael Stoll</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~4/8-UcelPcA1w" height="1" width="1"/>Tue, 11 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0400Kenya Covington, Lance Freeman and Michael Stollhttp://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2011/10/11-housing-suburbs-covington-freeman-stoll?rssid=Metropolitan+Opportunity{F6A83642-5188-4A6E-9879-785B34AE11DD}http://webfeeds.brookings.edu/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~3/Xhv-iK_qVio/22-metro-poverty-berube-kneeboneParsing U.S. Poverty at the Metropolitan Level<div> <img src="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/images/f/fk%20fo/food_bank004_16x9.jpg?w=120" alt="" border="0" /><br /><p>Last week’s data from the Census Bureau on poverty and income <a href="http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-avenue/94934/metro-lens-the-new-national-poverty-data">provided some hints</a> as to the impact of the Great Recession in U.S. regions and metropolitan areas. The picture becomes clearer today with the release of data from the <a href="http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/american_community_survey_acs/cb11-158.html">2010 American Community Survey</a>. They portray a bleak period in metro areas that swelled the ranks of the poor and punctuated a decade of economic stagnation for the middle class. Here are five trends that stood out to us in an initial scan of income and poverty data for the nation’s 100 largest metro areas:</p><p><p><b>The Great Recession raised poverty rates and reduced household incomes in the vast majority of metro areas. </b>The deep downturn<b> </b>left relatively few places untouched. Among the 100 largest metro areas, poverty rates rose in 79, and median household incomes declined in 82, between 2007 and 2010. </p> <p><b>Nearly all large metro areas ended the decade with lower median incomes than in 2000. </b>From 2000 to 2010, incomes declined in 91 of the 100 largest metro areas, and poverty rose in 88. In many, the recession merely exacerbated a negative pre-existing trend. In the first seven years of the decade, <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/metro/StateOfMetroAmerica/Map.aspx#/?subject=8&ind=76&dist=0&data=Percent&year=2007&geo=metro&zoom=0&x=0&y=0">median household income fell</a> in 70 metro areas, and <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/metro/StateOfMetroAmerica/Map.aspx#/?subject=8&ind=80&dist=0_0&data=Percent&year=2007&geo=metro&zoom=0&x=0&y=0">poverty rates rose</a> in 48. Census 2000 captured U.S. households at a high-water mark economically, a far different situation than they faced in 2010, or even before the Great Recession began.</p><noindex> <div class="multimedia"> <br /> <div id="fcontent1"><b>To view an interactive version of this map, please download <a href="http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer">Adobe Flash Player version 9.0</a> and a browser with javascript enabled.</b><br><br><img src="/~/media/Multimedia/Interactives/2011/incomechangejpeg.jpg"></div> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/swfobject/2.2/swfobject.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> swfobject.switchOffAutoHideShow(); var flashvars1= {xmlPath:"/~/media/Multimedia/Interactives/2011/incomechangedata.csv"}; swfobject.embedSWF('/~/media/Multimedia/Interactives/2011/incomechange.swf', 'fcontent1', "600", "475", "9.0.0", false, flashvars1); </script> <br /> <br /><p class="caption">Median Household Income Change in the Largest 100 Metro Areas</p> </div> </noindex><p><b>Large poverty increases brought on by the Great Recession began in housing-bust and manufacturing-oriented metro areas, but subsequently spread to other places in the South and West</b>. Over the first two years of the downturn, Sun Belt metro areas on the front lines of the housing market collapse—in Florida, the Intermountain West, and inland California—registered the largest increases in poverty rates. They were joined by a handful of metro areas in the nation’s manufacturing belt like Indianapolis and Cleveland. Several of these places continued to experience rising poverty from 2009 to 2010, but the most affected places included a broader set of metro areas in the Southeast like Columbia, Birmingham, and Nashville; in other parts of the West like Salt Lake City and Colorado Springs; and in previously better-off regions like Austin and Omaha. </p> <p><b>The recession increased overall poverty rates in cities and suburbs by similar degrees</b>. From 2007 to 2010, the poverty rate in major-metro cities rose 2.9 percentage points, compared to 2.3 percentage points in suburbs. Older Northern regions like Akron, Baltimore, New Haven, and Rochester tended to experience much larger increases in city than suburban poverty, while some Southern and Western regions like Oklahoma City, Orlando, and Seattle saw poverty rates rise more in suburbs than cities. Overall, the poverty rate in cities (20.9 percent) remained far higher than that in suburbs (11.4 percent) in 2010.</p> <p><b>Poor populations continued their decade-long </b><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/metro/Metropolitan-Opportunity.aspx"><b>shift toward suburban areas</b></a><b>.</b> A combination of factors including overall population growth, job decentralization, aging of housing, immigration, region-wide economic decline, and policies to promote mobility of low-income households led increasing shares of the poor to inhabit suburbs over the decade. From 2000 to 2010, the number of poor individuals in major-metro suburbs grew 53 percent, compared to 23 percent in cities. In 16 metro areas, including Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Indianapolis, and Milwaukee, the suburban poor population more than doubled during that time. The recession merely served to accelerate the trend, as suburbs added 3.4 million poor from 2007 to 2010—1.4 million more poor individuals than cities. </p><noindex> <div class="multimedia"> <br /> <div id="fcontent2"><b>To view an interactive version of this map, please download <a href="http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer">Adobe Flash Player version 9.0</a> and a browser with javascript enabled.</b><br><br><img src="/~/media/Multimedia/Interactives/2011/suburbanpoorjpeg.jpg"></div> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/swfobject/2.2/swfobject.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> swfobject.switchOffAutoHideShow(); var flashvars2= {xmlPath:"/~/media/Multimedia/Interactives/2011/suburbanpoordata.csv"}; swfobject.embedSWF('/~/media/Multimedia/Interactives/2011/suburbanpoor.swf', 'fcontent2', "600", "475", "9.0.0", false, flashvars2); </script><p class="caption">Change in Suburban Poor Population in the Largest 95 Metro Areas</p> </div> </noindex><p>Meager job growth and unemployment rate declines over the past year seem sure to extend many of the worrisome trends portrayed in the new data. As always, though, metro areas will chart <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/metromonitor">distinct trajectories</a> amid a sluggish national recovery. Can any manage to grow in ways that actually benefit low- to middle-income families? And knowing that things are likely to get worse before they get better, can metro areas adapt a traditionally city-focused social services infrastructure for helping the poor to the reality of increasingly region-wide needs?</p></p><div> <h4> Authors </h4><ul> <li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/experts/berubea?view=bio">Alan Berube</a></li><li>Elizabeth Kneebone</li> </ul> </div><div> Publication: The Avenue, The New Republic </div><div> Image Source: © Tami Chappell / Reuters </div> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~4/Xhv-iK_qVio" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 22 Sep 2011 09:28:00 -0400Alan Berube and Elizabeth Kneebonehttp://www.brookings.edu/blogs/the-avenue/posts/2011/09/22-metro-poverty-berube-kneebone?rssid=Metropolitan+Opportunity{307E0E00-46D5-405D-9B73-622E9C2630E8}http://webfeeds.brookings.edu/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~3/y5Sqeqa-U4s/18-transportation-tomer-puentesTransit Access and Zero-Vehicle Households<div> <p>Millions of zero-vehicle households live in areas well served by transit. Yet hundreds of thousands of zero-vehicle households live out of transit’s reach, particularly in the South and in the suburbs. And those with transit access still cannot reach a majority of jobs in metro areas within 90 minutes. Based on these trends, leaders must recognize these households’ unique mobility needs and aim to improve job accessibility through sound policy.<br /> <br /> </p> <div><em><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2011/08/18-transportation-tomer-puentes/profiles"><em>Find statistics on zero-vehicle households in your metropolitan area »</em></a></em></div> <div><em><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/reports/2011/05/12-jobs-and-transit"> <div><em>Read the analysis on metropolitan transit accessibility to jobs »</em></div> </a></em></div> <div><em> <div><em><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/utility/page-not-found?item=web%3a%7b7666D6F8-F87C-4109-A21A-6FEB991B2E7D%7d%40en"><em>View our interactive map to learn more about transit access in your area »</em></a></em></div> </em></div> <p><noindex> <div class="multimedia"> <script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/swfobject/2.2/swfobject.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">var flashvars = {};var params = { allowNetworking: "all", allowFullScreen: "true", hasPriority: "true", allowScriptAccess: "always", wmode: "transparent" };var attributes = { id: 'multimedia-5100fb4c-dd8c-4a0a-b18f-a666009d6405', name: 'multimedia-5100fb4c-dd8c-4a0a-b18f-a666009d6405'};swfobject.embedSWF("/~/media/multimedia/interactives/2011/transitshellfinal", "multimedia-5100fb4c-dd8c-4a0a-b18f-a666009d6405", "600", "400", "9.0.45", false, flashvars, params, attributes)</script><div id="multimedia-5100fb4c-dd8c-4a0a-b18f-a666009d6405"><p>To view this page, you must have both JavaScript enabled and version 8 of the Adobe Flash Player installed. <a href="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer">Download the Flash Player</a></p></div><p class="caption">Transit Access and Zero Vehicle Households</p> </div> </noindex><br /> <br /> </p> <p>An analysis of data from the American Community Survey and 371 transit providers in the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas reveals that:</p> <p><b>In the nation’s largest metropolitan areas, 7.5 million households do not have access to a private automobile. </b>A majority of these zero-vehicle households live in cities and earn lower incomes. Conversely, households with vehicles tend to live in suburbs and earn middle or higher incomes. The unique locational and income characteristics of zero-vehicle households reinforce their need for strong transit service.</p> <p><b>Over 90 percent of zero-vehicle households in large metropolitan areas live in neighborhoods with access to transit service of some kind.</b> This greatly exceeds the 68 percent coverage rate for households with a vehicle, suggesting transit service aligns with households who rely on it most. However, some 700,000 zero-vehicle households in the 100 largest metro areas lack access to transit. </p> <p><b>The typical metropolitan household without a vehicle can reach over 40 percent of metro-wide jobs via transit within 90 minutes, exceeding the 29 percent transit access share for households with a vehicle.</b> The tendency of zero-vehicle households to live in cities contributes to their above-average access to jobs via transit. Unfortunately, limited job access via transit in most metropolitan areas leaves many jobs out of reach for zero-vehicle households.</p> <p> </p><h4> Downloads </h4><ul> <li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2011/8/18-transportation-tomer-puentes/0818_transportation_media_memo">Media Memo</a></li><li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2011/8/18-transportation-tomer-puentes/0818_transportation_tomer">Download the Full Paper</a></li> </ul><div> <h4> Authors </h4><ul> <li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/experts/puentesr?view=bio">Robert Puentes</a></li><li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/metro/Staff/tomera.aspx">Adie Tomer</a></li> </ul> </div> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~4/y5Sqeqa-U4s" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 18 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0400Robert Puentes and Adie Tomerhttp://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2011/08/18-transportation-tomer-puentes?rssid=Metropolitan+Opportunity{C1C5F9E4-0393-456E-8245-A7B31F7EEA55}http://webfeeds.brookings.edu/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~3/4aublQKf96Y/08-immigration-poverty-wilson-singerDesperately Seeking a Michael Bloomberg for the Suburbs<div> <img src="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/images/f/fk%20fo/food_bank005_16x9.jpg?w=120" alt="" border="0" /><br /><p>New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is using $30 million of his own money—and a matching gift from George Soros—to help fund a new <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/04/nyregion/new-york-plan-will-aim-to-lift-minority-youth.html?_r=3&hp" jquery1312820304445="88">program</a> aimed at addressing the vast socio-economic disparities between New York City’s young white men and those who are black or Latino. At a time when more people are out of work and municipal budgets are stretched thin, private philanthropy is increasingly important. </p><p><p>But it’s not just cities that need this kind of help.  Poor people are more likely to live in <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2010/0120_poverty_kneebone.aspx" title="http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2010/0120_poverty_kneebone.aspx" jquery1312820304445="89">suburbs</a> now than in cities.  </p> <p>And poverty isn’t the only thing changing the suburbs. Immigration has also become more dispersed, both to <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2004/02demographics_singer.aspx" jquery1312820304445="90">new metropolitan areas</a> and, within them, to suburbs in addition to cities. By 2005, in fact, more immigrants lived in the <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/press/Books/2008/twentyfirstcenturygateways.aspx" jquery1312820304445="91">suburbs</a> of the 100 largest metropolitan areas than in their primary cities.</p> <p>These two trends have intersected so that now half of all poor immigrants live in the suburbs, as described in our <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2011/0804_immigration_suro_wilson_singer.aspx" jquery1312820304445="92">report</a> published last week. Just as immigrants on the whole have followed natives to the suburbs, so have the foreign-born poor followed the native-born poor to these areas. As a result, suburban areas with little or no experience with either immigration or poverty now face complex and unfamiliar public policy challenges. </p> <p>Traditional anti-poverty programs have focused on central cities, and the suburban infrastructure including local governments, non profits, and <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2011/0721_philanthropy_reckhow_weir.aspx" jquery1312820304445="93">private funders</a> have not caught up with the shifting geography of poverty and immigration. In places with little prior history of immigration, service agencies sometimes struggle to help to new influxes of immigrants in diverse languages, and demand for English language classes is often much higher than supply. Schools, too, may have limited resources, both fiscal and human, to adapt to a rapidly increasing student body with limited English proficiency. </p> <p>Amid strained budgets, support for these and additional services related to public safety or public health may be hard to come by. <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2010/1007_suburban_poverty_allard_roth.aspx" jquery1312820304445="94">Suburban social safety nets</a> already involve dollars stretched across larger areas than their counterparts in cities.</p> <p>Take <a href="http://www.npr.org/2011/08/04/138926167/the-economic-legacy-of-atlantas-olympic-games" jquery1312820304445="95">Atlanta</a>. The number of poor living in Atlanta’s suburbs increased by more than 300,000 between 2000 and 2009, more than any other suburban area in the country. (Seventy-three percent of that growth came from the native-born population, but immigrants in Atlanta’s suburbs are almost twice as likely as natives to be poor.) Despite this high growth in suburban poverty, Atlanta-based philanthropies give <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2011/0721_philanthropy_reckhow_weir.aspx" jquery1312820304445="96">relatively little</a> in the way of grant dollars to suburban service providers.</p> That’s <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/metro/StateOfMetroAmerica/Map.aspx#/?subject=8&ind=87&dist=0_0&data=Number&year=2009&geo=suburb&zoom=0&x=0&y=0" jquery1312820304445="97">one place</a> where a Bloomberg for the ‘burbs would come in handy.</p><div> <h4> Authors </h4><ul> <li><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/experts/singera?view=bio">Audrey Singer</a></li><li>Jill H. Wilson</li> </ul> </div><div> Publication: The Avenue, The New Republic </div><div> Image Source: © Brian Snyder / Reuters </div> </div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/brookingsrss/series/metropolitanopportunity/~4/4aublQKf96Y" height="1" width="1"/>Mon, 08 Aug 2011 12:23:00 -0400Audrey Singer and Jill H. Wilsonhttp://www.brookings.edu/blogs/the-avenue/posts/2011/08/08-immigration-poverty-wilson-singer?rssid=Metropolitan+Opportunity